Sounds like your having the same problems with the mega tek unit that we had . Our contractor told us the same thing about the mega tek, that it could heat, cool and do the heating for our infloor heat. I found out on my own research that the mega tek does not do infloor heat. Our supplier is replacing the mega tek with a magnum hydronic unit from hydro delta. I did not want anything associated with hydro delta but it is the only way to get a new geo unit for free. You can read about my issues in my post" Big issue with hydro delta mega tek"

To make you feel better, I agree with you fully on your situation. Believe me, I know what your saying when all you want is a unit that works properly, is a quality unit, and does what you are promised it would do. My situation has also caused great stress me also. I know where you are coming from. Good luck on whatever happens to you and yours, I really do hope that your situation gets resolved and are finally happy with your unit.

Is it fair, no. Of course not. Not for you for all the reasons you listed above. Or your installer that has had to eat hours of time in your home and arrange things outside of it.
If you do not wish to pay, you could likely get another HD for nothing, but they will not buy you another brand.
If it helps, consider a few things such as you get a better piece of equipment, your warranties are new where HDelta should be nearly exhausted and you are getting that for a couple thousand out of pocket (after credits and rebates).
You could lean on your installer and get the amount down, but it will cost in labor warranty down the road.
Absolutely unfair! But perhaps a reasonable compromise.
Good Luck,
Joe

What are you saving by sticking with this guy? The old adage "Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me" comes to mind. I don't know what fool me five times is but I'd try to avoid it unless he's giving you a huge deal over someone else.

Joe,

Good advice.  Once I stopped and thought about our situation, many contractors would have walked and left me stuck with problems.  The contractor never did.  Did we have a lot of problems, yes, I don't blame that on the contractor, his service was above the bar.  I blame our issues on Hydro Delta.  Because of that, I just couldn't see switching to another contactor that had no reason to make things work for us.

By keeping reasonable and talking things out, we reached an agreement that both of us can live with.  We both have to accept some losses, but life's to short to short to fight and bicker.  It's a relief to not have to worry about any more HydroDelta issues!

I suspect your decision will have your installer bend over backwards to ensure your happiness.
Bad things happen to good people, installers and manufacturers.
I truly wish you well and suspect you will find peace based on the charity and open mindedness shown in your last post.
Best of Luck!
j
ps,
gregj, did the installer "fool him" by charging once for 3 replacements or stick with at $5-$10 an hour. Material was involved, labor warranties exhausted and this guy charged~ $1,600 for countless visits over 4 years. It is bad for everyone involved. What do ya think is someone new or the original installer most invested in success of this job?

Having read this post, I sure am glad that Hydrodelta failed to supply their units for our project after months of waiting.  I was really intrigued with their ability to provide 100% of domestic hot water, and thought I was settling for less.  It turned out that we ended up with Climate Master and I now have no regrets.

I am sorry you are having problems IH.  If nothing else, perhaps posts like this will get HydroDelta to resolve their issues or go out of business as they are swallowed by their higher quality competition.

Regards,
Ed 

Joe, Here's my thinking (and maybe you and the other pros on this site have trained me too well, LOL). I keep reading on here that the choice of installer is more important than the equipment and that most problems are install related rather than equipment related.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong but it looks like the installer originally sold him something that was never ever delivered (it never did all the promised functions and still doesn't to this day) and the lesser capability that was delivered failed on a more than annual basis (Countless compressors).

Presumably the contractor's installs of HydroDelta units for other customers were without the same issues because he stuck with them as the only brand he sold for at least 4 years and he would have gone bankrupt if they all failed like this install. Countless failures for one particular install looks like an install problem unless IH happens to be the unluckiest Hydrodelta customer ever.

I have no idea how much IH ended up paying over the 4 1/2 years to replace the countless compressors and 4 units that should should have been covered under warranty so I'll take your word that it was $1600. To me that's $1600 too much. The contractor selected the brand that he would stand behind and it's up to the contractor to come to terms with the manufacturer regarding who eats what in warranty costs.

My understanding is that when contractors bid a job they include within the price enough money to cover what their expected warranty coverage expenses might be (on average) so he shouldn't be looking for any money from the customer for fixing a defective product. Sure this one's costing him more $ than he built in upfront but he should have a lot of other units with no warranty expenses to offset this one. I give him credit for continuing to come back and if he did free work outside of warranty terms then that too (though it's hard to imagine much of it being out of warranty).

To a layman like me this looks entirely like an install problem that the contractor just can't figure out. That is why I would want to go with another contractor. I know it wouldn't take you 4 1/2 years to fix this system Joe.

By saying "fool me" I'm not saying the contractor intentionally conned IH or that he isn't invested in fixing the problem, I was only referring to an old adage we can all relate too. I could have also referred to the definition of Insanity being doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I wouldn't mean I thought IH was insane for continuing to deal with the contractor I would only be using the adage for illustrative purposes.

The contractor is obviously a nice guy and trying everything he can to make it right and IH isn't insane for continuing with him because the contractor is trying. But it appears this one is just beyond the capabilities of the contractor - it has been over 4 years of nonstop problems. At some point you have to try a different direction. If a guy strikes out everytime he's at bat would the coach keep putting him in just because he was trying hard and working cheap? At some point you gotta get results.

A new contractor ought to be as invested in his new install as this contractor is in his old install. That is why I wondered whether the current contractors proposal is a significantly better deal than a new contractors proposal. At this point I would certainly be looking at the cost of other options.

I'm probably jumping to conclusions but by your response it looks like you don't believe the install to be the issue. I know you pros don't like to slam equipment manufacturers publicly so I won't ask you to do that. But I guess I can draw my own conclusion about the quality of the HydroDelta equipment. It's hard to imagine how this contractor stayed in business for 4 1/2 yrs with HydrDelta as his only brand if they fail annually at a 100% rate.

This particular brand has a less than attractive reputation. We are hopeful that the new owners (research products) can successfully work the bugs out (I'm watching with interest). You are correct that I'm not excited about singling out any brand of equipment, but the information is already on this site for those who look.
Meanwhile you make a good point with the definition of insanity, but I know the new unit to be more reliable and the installer to be extremely interested in the outcome. The price quoted is near cost so the installer continues to give time.

However in my haste to applaud the contractor for sticking with; it did not occur to me to seek additional install problems. It probably wouldn't hurt to have one other bidder. I fully expect trouble to be blamed on equipment, but it's worth double checking.

If the deal is already done, send us some photos of the install and loop info and we'll see if anything jumps out at us.
j

Joe, I always learn something from your posts. Your perspective on how much the contractor has invested in this situation is an important one. It is clear that he is still trying to make this right at no small expense to himself. Hope this works out for both IH and the contractor.